


Red and Redder

by SilverWhiteRaven



Series: Destined Enemies Soulmate AU [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, F/M, Gen, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:02:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28283649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverWhiteRaven/pseuds/SilverWhiteRaven
Summary: Marinette Learns about her Soulmark, and her Soulmate. She didn't know what to expect. And Jason didn't see it coming, either.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd
Series: Destined Enemies Soulmate AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664092
Comments: 16
Kudos: 125





	1. The Start of It All

**Author's Note:**

  * For [m3owww](https://archiveofourown.org/users/m3owww/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Too Much Red](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23149588) by [SilverWhiteRaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverWhiteRaven/pseuds/SilverWhiteRaven). 



> Secret Santa gift to: m3owww  
> Re-write and continuation of Too Much Red  
> (Don't worry, I did reach the character limit, this is just the first part!)

Learning about the details of her soulmate-bond was a strange experience for Marinette. 

At first, it was a bit mystical, because really, she was just a child, who wouldn't be fascinated over the magic behind bonds and their physical manifestations? It was the thing that put a twinkle in her eye, that even if it wasn't for herself, inspired her beyond measure.

Marinette was born with a pure white mark spiraling around her left arm, from wrist to shoulder, with little notches in it. A Time-Release Mark, it was called, which her parents told her as soon as she was able to ask the question. The spiral would slowly turn black from shoulder down as time went by. As it would reach notches, it would change color, and the notch would turn into a new symbol, like a charm on a bracelet, releasing hints, insight, and showing important moments for her Soulmate. 

Something new and final, replacing the whole timeline, will bloom out once the line reaches its end. How long that takes depends on the pair, and is unique to each rare bearer of the Time-Release Mark.

Marinette was looking forward to finding them, so much so that it made her bounce on her feet every time it came to mind. She also liked to think that her Soulmate was just as fascinated by their Mark as she was, and that they enjoyed seeing the symbols that represented her whenever they formed. She was also hoping her relationship with whoever she was bonded to would at the very least be that of friends, and maybe someday, it could evolve to be something more...

But she didn't expect her hints to tell her a story quite so different from her hopes like this.

Not something this…. Heartbreaking. 

Marinette didn't expect to know about their family suffering with poverty and crime, or the struggles of surviving their home life. 

She didn't know she would feel their pain in her heart without being there to witness it. 

She was happy and felt relief when good things would appear, too, glad their life wasn't completely full of despair. Her parents, too, reassured her that things would get better, even if it didn't seem like it. She believed them, of course. 

And yet, things did get worse, and once again she wasn't ready for what was to come.

She didn't expect to not know what it meant when a particular notch bloomed into a little robin, it’s shadow shaped like a bat. It was something unlike all the others, even if it did fit the pattern of concerning images. It was something not even her parents could explain no matter how much Marinette asked or tried to research. The best she could do was find some online forums in English, a language she wasn't fluent in enough yet to understand with it full of foreign slang and shorthands.

She didn’t expect to finally learn what the robin meant, either. She had been watching the news from across the ocean, part of her studies with English, and it was showing news about a high profile villain attack. Marinette thought little of it at first, outside of feeling empathy for the victims. 

But then her line turned grey, and the next notch expanded and splintered, like it was glass shattered in an explosion.

An explosion just like the one being reported on a few minutes later, rumoring the assumed death of the partner of a hero named Batman.

They were a boy called Robin.

Yet somehow, the timeline on her arm wasn't over.

Six months after the incident, still ridden with grief she tried to hide from her friends and parents, Marinette tried not to think about what it meant when a new notch bloomed into a blank textbook-styled timeline with a white, round void splitting it in half. She refused to let herself have hope, because she may believe in miracles, but not ones as hopeless as this.

A year after her Soulmate’s death, between that broken timeline and the next long-off one yet to be revealed, she became a hero herself.

Being Ladybug, a hero, scared her more than anything had in the past. She didn’t want to end up like her Soulmate, being in danger and unprotected by the world. And most of all she doubted  _ he _ would have wanted this for her either. 

But that choice wasn’t to be made by her thoughts alone, so she stayed Ladybug.

Five years into her fight against Hawk Moth, Marinette had to harden herself when the next notch finally showed itself and became an angry knot of thorns, turning her line a sickly green. She wished with all her heart that her time as a Hero, as a Guardian, didn’t make her know what the change meant.

She didn't know what the timeline was on her Soulmate's arm, what it showed him about her, but she knew what the one on her own was leading to. She was a Hero, after all. 

And when, not long after, a new symbol appeared in the form of a bloodied red bat, she knew whoever was on the other end of her mark was a hero no more. 

And yet the notches weren't over yet.

Now she just had to wait and see.

Just had to wait, and hope, with all her aching heart.


	2. From the OTher Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason's side of things.

Jason didn’t get many chances to learn about his soulmate-bond. At least, not at home.

His father never liked talking about it, to say the least about how he would react, violently and harshly, to the question. His mother was usually too out of it, drunk or high or both, for him to ask, or when she wasn't, went on a tirade about romantics that felt like half lies she told herself, and half nonsense no one believed.So, he learned to keep his questions to himself. 

He kept quiet, even when the first notch in the white spiral on his right arm bloomed into a branch of cherry blossoms. 

He was excited, and nervous about seeing his Soul-Mark change for the first time beyond the original slow change to black. He bottled his excitement away, kept the mark hidden under baggy shirts and thin jackets to keep his father or mother from seeing. This one little joy wasn't one he wanted taken away or ruined.

When the second notch grew into a spindle of thread and needle, he still kept quiet, and wore longer sleeves. 

Even when the third part turned into what he thought looked like a glitched videogame character, he kept it to himself.

But they always made his happiness, what little of it he was able to have, grow, without fail.

And yet, it wasn't until his father died- was killed by the very villain he worked for- that Jason questioned what his Soulmate saw. If perhaps they had the same mark.

Did they see his first trip into a library, and how it became his favorite place in all the world?

Did they see how his heart ached when he lost his father, despite how much he wished he didn't feel love for the man?

He wasn’t sure, and the library he went to was missing several books in its Soulmate section- all the sections really- due to frequent theft. 

However, he became certain that his Soulmate would see this pain, if they did have the same mark, when his mother died, too. She was a light in his life, despite her lack of being truly present. So this time, he really did let himself mourn, feel the loss, and feel regret all the time that was wasted and all the times that wouldn't come again.

He truly wished that his father wasn't both the reason the woman he considered closest to a real parent did hard drugs, and the reason that kept her from doing too much at the same time. Without him, there was less fighting, yes. But without him, there was also no one to stop the widowed wife from going away, too.

After that, he tried his best to ration the money left by his parents. Most went to rent, and very little went to food. Jason tried his best to ignore how much he needed more food. School wasn't much of an option, either, too far away, and not enough money for the public bus, since schools refused to send their own busses into Crime Alley no matter how much the city offered to pay the drivers.

At least he had the free library pass.

Odd jobs here and there also kept Jason going for a while. 

But things happen, they always do.

He ended up in the streets. No apartment as shelter, and even less food than before. 

Now, he had to fight to have both.

Good, steady jobs refused to accept him due to his age. The shadier places were more open to taking advantage of the young and poor, though. So he went into the theft business. He found out he was really good with those L-shaped nut wrenches for car tires. So he kept doing that, and became a part of the smaller parts of the overall crime that gave the Alley its name.

One day, he got a little too cocky when he found the infamous Batmobile hidden in the shadows of one of the alleyways. When he was predictably and undoubtedly caught but the Bat himself, Jason was certain his Soulmate’s mark would show that his life was completely doomed now with how much he messed up. 

Throwing his nut wrench at the Bat wasn't going to help much, either.

It took Jason a while to really register what happened instead.

Big Bad Bat’s identity? Revealed. Adoption paperwork? Apparently signed. Life in prison for tire theft? Avoided.

And a few more months later? Training under his belt, and a suit, in Robin's colors, in Jason’s hands. And of course he accepted it with gusto. 

This was all better than he could have ever thought. He wished his Soulmate could see him now, and be happy for how far he’s come.

And then, one fateful day as he’s tricked by a birth-mother he never should have met and left beaten by a slowly ticking explosive, he wished with all his broken heart that his Soulmate wouldn't see his death on their own arm. That hopefully, they saw nothing at all.


	3. Red Sees Green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They meet. Things... Happen.

Ladybug’s heart was pounding as she moved through the shadows of Gotham’s highrise skyline. Chat Noir, her friend and partner for almost five and a half years now, tailed behind her. He was acting as a guard to his more vibrantly visible partner, since she didn't have the visual stealth he did, even when dual-wielding Miraculous. 

“Buggette, are you sure about this?” Chat nervously asked for what had to be the hundredth time since she had explained the situation and pitched her plan to him. “I mean, this guy is supposedly your, well, _y’know_. Does it really have to go this way?”

She sighed regretfully in response. “Yes, Chaton, I do. It sucks, but I have to. After consulting with all the Kwami so many times over this, there’s no other choice as quick and effective that doesn't pile on more casualties.”

“Not even Bunnix?” He sounded hopeful, but deflated at her answer.

“No, especially not her,” she stated firmly. “Both Alix and Fluff agree, it’s not wise or smart. Clashing two timelines against each other, both from different sources, is a last resort, and an off-limits one because of the potential destruction it could cause to reality. No point in counting casualties if there’s no one left, or if none of us exist to do it in the first place.”

She looked back at him through the shadows with empathy and sorrow in her eyes.

“And at that point, Chat, the losses wouldn't even be worth meeting him at all.”

“Yeah,” Chat sighed, agreeing with her despite how much he hoped there was another way.

The pair continued on, continuously checking their backs and monitoring their communicators for either Hero or Villain transmissions. 

“We’re in luck, Ladybug, the Bats are on the other side of the city” Chat informed her as he listened in to his ear comm. “They don't plan to pass through Crime Alley for another couple hours. That should, hopefully, be plenty of time.”

“So long as things don't go wrong,” she adds, a tinge of doubt in herself seeping through.

“LB, you got this. I believe in you. And Besides! We have Sass with us, just in case,” He reassured with a half grin to try and reassure her. 

She smiled back in gratitude, thankful for her partner’s uplifting spirit as they continued their mission.

They were dead in the middle of Crime Alley not long after, looking for their target from the rooftops and occasional drop down alleys and into smashed out windows of vacant buildings. 

While Chat Noir had been listening in to the Hero communications, Ladybug was on the Villain side. She didn't want her partner dealing with the bunt end of her problem. It was what she heard that made her freeze in her tracks, with Chat looking curiously at her sudden stop.

“Bug?”

“Chat… He’s not here. He’s not in the Alley tonight,” she told him, worried.

“Shootnuggets, then where is he?” He sounded almost as concerned as she sounded panicked.

Ladybug hesitated. 

“He’s…” she gulped. “Rumor in the Underground is apparently, he’s going to try an attack on Batman tonight.”

“Double nuggets… should I find out where they are in the city so we can intercept?”

“No, no, he’s- Chat, he might be going straight for the heart of his operation. The Bat Cave.”

Chat was stunned for a moment before uttering a disbelieving “triple nugs…”

She nods, confirming she too thought the same as him on the situation. “We need to get there, now. Even if it’s a false alarm, it would be bad to be caught up here while he’s out there doing who knows what.”

Chat Noir’s face morphed into a look of determination as he gave a solid nod of agreement.

“Grab Kaalki. Let’s go.”

A transformation and a use of Voyage later, the Miraculous Duo found themselves inside the infamous Bat Cave of the ever mysterious Batman. Luckily, it was a secluded area, the light of their portal not going anywhere someone would notice right away.

“No signs of anyone here,” Chat Noir informed as he looked around, peeking past a corner.

“Agent A?” Ladybug asked, receiving a shake of the head in response.

“At the Bat Computer, monitoring online activity and city camera feeds.”

“Let’s stay alert, no telling what kind of security they have here.”

“I could just-” Chat lifted a hand, and she held out a hand and shook her head in a no gesture.

“We don’t want to make this place vulnerable for even a second, it's too important. We’ll just have to deal with it yourself and tread lightly.”

The pair of heroes got lucky, running into no resistance, no other heroes, and no deadly laser beams or acid pits like Chat Noir jokingly suggested, and Ladybug fondly rolled her eyes at.

But while they saw a lot of things that made their eyes sparkle in curiosity and awe, they had not sighted their target.

“He’s not here…. I’m worried, what if it was a ploy, a misdirect?” Her voice was anxious again, and Chat gave her a firm pat on the shoulder.

“Impossible. No one knows we’re here, and even your Soulmark won't give you away because the symbols only appear in real time, for major things, and-”

“And nothing major has happened just yet, I know, i know… Thank you, Chat Noir, I needed that.” She gave him a reassuring smile that he returned. “Let's keep going?” 

“You're always welcome, my Lady. lets find the Cave’s entrance check outside, he might still be coming.” With one last reassuring pat and squeeze of her shoulder, Chat Noir led the way, through the paved tunnel, and out the mouth of the Bat Cave.

“Hidden in plain sight,” Chat marveled, looking back. “It doesn't look like there's anything interesting here at all, just rock and lichen. Cool beans. Can we have a lair like this, Bug?”

“Next time, Chaton, we can take over Hawk Moth’s place. But first-”

“Wait!” Ladybug stopped talking immediately, as her partner’s face went pale. “They know we’re here. Quad nuggets, LB, they have motion seniors out here. Agent A is calling the Bat back home early to investigate a priority potential threat.”

Ladybug set her stance firm, determined. “We stay, as long as we can. First sight of Batman, we leave. But if there’s a chance _he_ will show up before that, I want to take it.”

“I'm with you all the way,” Chat said supportively.

“Thank you…” She tried not to let tears swell up at the thought of his amazing confidence in her, his support, his kindness. She knew she wouldn't be here without him. She couldn't.

She was glad to have him as her Miraculously magically made Platonic Soulmate.

Their bubble was burst a moment later by the sound of a vehicle, and an update in Chat’s ear. 

“Another motion detector went off, It’s not the bat. Agent A says it’s a motorcycle.”

“He’s here,” Ladybug whispered, turning towards the vehicle path. “Chat?”

“Yes?”

“I need… I want to take care of this myself. Will you let me?” Ladybug looked at him with pleading eyes, hoping he would understand.

He hesitates, but sighs, and nods slowly. “I get it. As long as you're sure. Here, you’ll need this, use it to trip up his bike before he can get to the cave.” He handed over his silver staff, and she accepted it graciously.

“I’ll keep him on his toes with it. Thank you, Chat. I owe you,” she thanked him, holding back tears as she tries not to think about what was about to happen.

“Pay me back in bakery vouchers,” he winked. “I’m going to go check on Agent A, make sure he doesn't find his shotgun before you're done out here.” And with that, her partner of over five years turned on his heels, and left her to do what she asked of him.

“Lucky Charm,” she whispered as his steps faded away. It fell into her hands almost soundlessly, though it felt the weight of the world.

She was glad Chat agreed and left it, glad he wouldn't have to be here for this. Kwami knows he’s had to put up with enough emotional conflict.

The sound of the revved engine grew louder, and Ladybug crouched, setting herself up to ambush the target.

Light spilled through the trees and underbrush, all along the walls of the cliffside.

She went lower, tensing to pounce.

There was a headlight, then a flash of metal, and finally a red, red helmet.

The silver staff in her hands shot out at the simple press of a button. Her well timed, well aimed shot put the rod straight through the spokes of the front tire, and the whole thing flipped forward with enough force to throw the passenger several meters past Ladybug’s position.

The staff was back in her hands an instant later, and she was out of her hiding spot in a flash, heading for the fallen man. He was coughing, trying to get air back into his lungs. She realized this was her best chance. 

And she knew it was real, because the Soulmark on her arm felt like it was crawling on her skin in reaction to her proximity to its companion. 

She didn't want a fight. She didn't want to break her heart any more than this was already going to.

“Red Hood, I presume,” she said, through a hard lump in her throat and chest.

More coughing, and a rough laugh. “In the flesh. Though I think you just cracked my helmet. That’s a big no-no, you can't break a man’s trademark like that.” He turned his head up towards her, helmet falling to the ground, and she almost stumbled.

His green, _green_ eyes, hinting at blues under the haze of the Pits, looked right at her. But there was no recognition in them. No sign he felt the same tingling on his arm as her. At a glance, she realized it was likely because he thought it was just the large scrape from the impact causing the sensation.

She looked back into his eyes, and solidified her resolution to carry out her task.

“Villains don’t get a say in how their questionable clothing choices get handled, sorry.”

Another chuckle as he tried to get up. She kicked him back to the ground, pressing a foot down to keep him there. He froze when she pointed her Lucky Charm through a gap in his chest’s kevlar.

Ladybug looked at her left arm one more time, just a glance. A notch was blooming, she could feel it. She glanced at Red Hood’s arm. The showing-through mark was changing as well. He spoke again, as the mark turned into a winged sword piercing through a green demon.

"Quite the Valkyrie you are,” Red Hood commented casually with a sly smile. “No... No, you are an angel, sweetie, and a real tough one. You got me good back there with your little trick." 

She looked into his eyes, past his grin and fresh bruises and cuts, and saw again green the poison of the pits there, shining through his natural, beautiful blues.

"Yeah,” she responded, her remorse hidden behind a mask of ice. “An angel with a shotgun. And you have a speed-date with God. Alone."

He almost seemed to flinch at the final word, but she didn't let it affect her. She couldn't.

She swallowed, revealing only the slightest of hesitations. Red Hood- her Soulmate- smiled wider, thinking he may have seen an opening, a moment to stop her. 

But as he opened his mouth to speak again, she pulled the trigger on her Lucky Charm, wincing at the kickback and the noise.

Ladybug wasn't willing to look back at him now, to see the damage she had done with her Lucky Charm- her firearm, her weapon- through the gap in his armor that she stuck the barrel through. She stumbled back, dropping her magical, bloodied tool into the grass and dirt.

She breathed, hard, trying to make her shaking body be steady.

Her Soulmark _burned_.

Her heart felt full of pain and surrounded by emptiness, worse than it ever had before.

Another engine sounded as she stood there in her state of shock.

Moments later, the Batmobile drove to a stop in her peripheral vision. 

And through the blur of her fresh tears breaking through her cold mask, a daunting figure came out.

“ _What have you done?_ ” Batman’s dark voice growled at her as he stalked forward, taking in the sight before him. “ _Killing_ is _never_ -”

“The answer, I know,” Ladybug finished, her voice weak and feeble, choked with silent sobs. It stopped the Bat in his tracks, and his face looked conflicted, but he was contemplating her, observing her. He continued forward again, slower. Less like a predator. More like a judge.

“You killed Red Hood, you realize this?” He asked in a low voice. “There will be consequences. Many. Both for your act, and for the aftermath.” She only nods. 

A moment of silence passes, and that moment, the quiet of it, is the only reason she hears Batman take a breath, a faint gasp.

He was looking at the corpse of Red Hood. The helmet-less face of Red Hood.

This time, it was Batman’s voice that was quiet, and filled with brimming emotions.

“Jason?” 

Ladybug- Marinette- choked at the name, and couldn't stop herself from turning her head back to look at her dead Soulmate, because she finally knew his name.

“ _Jason_ ,” she whispered his name ever so quietly as she saw the red bat on his chest, dyed redder than before. And at the sight of his broken form, her sobs flowed just as freely as her tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed~! Happy Holidays <3 <3 <3


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